State Committee on the State of Emergency

The State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) was a group of eight high-level Soviet politicians, CPSU figures, and KGB leaders who attempted a hardline communist coup against Mikhail Gorbachev on 19 August 1991 in the "August Coup". The eight members were Vice President Gennady Yanayev, Premier Valentin Pavlov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, KGB chairman Vladimir Kruychkov, First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council Oleg Baklanov, Chairman of the Peasants' Union Vasily Starodubtsev, and President of the Association of State Enterprises Alexander Tizyakov. The coup collapsed after only two days, and, although Gorbachev returned to power, it destabilized the USSR and led to the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.